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A while back I was on my way to an engagement where it was very important for me to be on time, and I really should have had my wife with me. See, we have a little arrangement—works pretty well. I'm the pilot; she's the navigator. She's got a great sense of direction; I can't find my way out of my bedroom in the morning. So it's good to have her along, but she wasn't there.
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My daughter and I hugged a lot when she was little. And when she was a big college student, and even now that she has a family of her own, I'm happy to report we still have what we call "hug alerts." We have always had a demonstrative relationship; have with all the kids actually.
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I was ten years old, and I saw a movie I never should have seen. It's about this dinosaur that got thawed out at the North Pole somewhere, and he'd been kept there for several million years. He really should have stayed there. Yeah, because see, he made his way to New York City. Don't ask me how. I didn't think about that at the time. All I know is, I will never forget the scene of this big, old Tyrannosaurus Rex roaming the city, ripping up the roller coaster at Coney Island, knocking down buildings, grabbing a policeman in his hands, and devastating pedestrians.
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I'm one of those people with a wall-to-wall schedule I'm afraid. And maybe like you, there's just like no time in there for Murphy's Law—no time for anything to go wrong. Occasionally, Mr. Murphy still visits me.
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It was a hot July day some years ago in Washington D.C., and I had a great experience! Sixteen thousand Christian teenagers massed on the Capitol Mall with Capitol Hill right behind us, and we were having the closing rally.
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When World War II began, almost every American's life changed, including my Dad's. He couldn't fight because of a medical problem, and he was working at that time in a plant that had been making some kind of industrial product. And suddenly almost overnight it was converted into a defense plant. They stopped making whatever little things they had been making, and they started to make airplane parts. Well, it was obvious what was happening. It was a war, and that plant had to be used to help win the war. During that time, not that I remember it personally, people made sacrifices of gasoline, and food, and rubber tires, and money. Why? Well, because you know that everything is needed to fight the war. It was then and it still is.
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Our daughter was in a big hurry to get home that night in February, but her aunt wasn't. Her aunt had taken her shopping, and her aunt was taking her time. One more thing to buy; one more store to go to; oh, yeah, one more stop to make. Oh, we need to fill up with gas. Okay, I only need two gallons, but we need to fill up with gas. By the time our daughter finally got home, man, she was frustrated. She sort of sputtered as she walked in the front door only to be greeted by 25 of her best friends jumping out of the darkness shouting, "Surprise!"
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If you're a sports spectator, it's the least exciting part of the event. If you're a player, it can really make an important difference. It's called a "time out." Now on TV, a time out is a good excuse for a commercial. But some important things are sorted out during time outs. A coach can give you some perspective on what you're doing right or wrong, some suggestions on how to play better, to improve, look at the weaknesses of the other team. You can catch your breath, you can recover, you can regroup. A time out wisely used can actually make a decisive difference in the game...in your game.
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I had a friend who was a veteran sailor, and occasionally he would take us out on his sailboat. And I learned that when my sailing friend said it was time to go in, I'd better listen. There were times when we were out and the weather was beautiful, and I thought it was going to stay beautiful. But, man, his instincts knew better. He'd say, "I think we'd better go in." I'd say, "On a beautiful day like this? This is a ten." He'd say, "It isn't going to stay that way."
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A few months ago it was "Wild Winter." And then as we got into spring, "Soggy Spring"—the sequel. Oh yeah, we might have thought that we had seen the last of those mountains of snow. Wrong again. In fact, the weather guys had predicted that all that snow would come floating in melted form down our rivers and streams. And there were the floods again! Listen, I lived a long time in a town who has one claim to fame in national newscasts—major flooding. They made it again this year. It's a heartache that we know all too well.
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You know, I've been told so many times in my life, "Go take a hike," so I finally did. Well, this particular summer I was at a lovely Christian conference center in California called Forest Home. One day when I wasn't speaking, they had a nature hike. They had a fellow called Father Nature who took us out (you didn't know there was a Father Nature I'll bet) and he showed us the four different kinds of nature zones they had on their property.
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Since I was three times a parent, I had to learn something about motivating kids to study. And that's not an easy job; it doesn't come naturally to most of us to want to just sit down and study. But I learned that there are a number of incentives. There are scholarships, threats, rewards, privileges, impassioned speeches. But I've also noticed that there are two words that motivate faster study than anything I know. Those words are "Final Exam."
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Okay, for all too many of us the words diet and failure are synonyms. I guess that's why Weight Watchers was born. There were a lot of people who have never lost weight, or at least been able to keep it off, and suddenly the word diet becomes synonymous with success.
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A number of years ago I was driving for a pretty extended trip with my son. And in that relaxed moment I said, "There's something we need to talk about." He rolled his eyes, and he said, "Dad, is this 'the talk'?" Well, he must have read me pretty well. He was right. It was time for "the talk."
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There's at least one reason I hate to be away from home for very long, and there are actually more than one. I come back to this giant stack of mail, and sometimes emails. In fact, depending on how long I've been gone, sometimes I come back to a box of mail, and that's pretty intimidating.
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Now, the problem with professional football games is they keep slowing down for huddles and time outs; especially those commercials. I'll tell you when they don't slow down. It's near the end of the game where your team is behind, and with two minutes left, a team often skips the huddle and all the delays, and they just go right from one play to the next. They forget the game plan; there's two minutes left. They go for broke!
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We were waiting in front of a restaurant with our children, and my son saw a parent trying to keep his two-year-old occupied. Now, you know, it's tough enough for the parents to wait to get into a restaurant; it's a little hard to keep a two-year-old boy busy. And there's something in a child that wants freedom. And this child was no exception, because as soon as the parent would let this little guy go, he'd start to chug the other direction as fast as he could. It almost appeared as if he thought he really was going to get away from his dad. Not a chance! Dad started after him, you know, looking like it was hard to catch him. You know it wasn't.
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It was the end of World War II, and the city of Berlin was being divided up by the allies. Now, the East Berliners, in what was to become Communist Berlin, drove a dump truck over to the west side to free Berlin. It was filled with garbage, and they just let it all be dumped out and then they drove away. Nice, huh?
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Wallenda. That's a name that is synonymous with tightrope artistry, high wire drama. The Great Wallendas! The patriarch of the Wallenda clan was Karl Wallenda, and at the age of 73 he was still doing tightrope work. He went to South America several years ago and strung a tight rope between two 20-story buildings. For him that was not an unusual feat, but tragically that day Karl Wallenda fell to his death.
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Going to Amsterdam for Billy Graham's great conference on evangelism has to be one of the most awesome experiences of my life. Billy Graham brought together about 10,000 evangelists from 174 countries. I mean, these huge meetings were unforgettable! And yet, I would have to say that one of the most special moments involved a crowd of a total of two people. It was me and the bus driver.
